Congress Considers Bill to Help Domestic Violence Victims Escape With Their Pets

http://goo.gl/T1NPIf

The bill is called the Pet and Women Safety (PAWS) Act, and it would give grant money to domestic violence shelters to set up programs for victims who need to bring pets with them when they escape. 

"Less than 5 percent of domestic violence shelters nationwide house pets," Scaccia reports, " ... but a real need exists for more: Research by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) shows between 18 and 48 percent of survivors delay vacating abusive situations because they fear their pet would be in danger if left behind."

As the ASPCA explains, men who beat women often beat and even kill those women's pets. In one study in Wisconsin, the ASPCA reports, "68 percent of battered women revealed that abusive partners had also been violent toward pets or livestock; more than three-quarters of these cases occurred in the presence of the women and/or children to intimidate and control them." 


Meet a Gay Man With Down Syndrome Who Doesn’t Let Labels Define Him

http://goo.gl/NUxeLC

In the video below, Mic editor Elizabeth Plank talks with Paul, a young man from Brooklyn, who has Down syndrome and also happens to be gay. He and his mother discuss with Plank the way the word “gay” is used pejoratively in a similar way to the “R” word and the harmful effect these words can have on people.

“I am homosexual,” Paul says in the video below, “and I feel fabulous about it.”


Netflix Begins Audio Description for Visually Impaired

!!
http://blog.netflix.com/

At Netflix, we work hard to continually improve the experience for our members when viewing movies and shows on our service, including providing accessibility across devices. Now we’re expanding our accessibility options by adding audio description on select titles, beginning today with our new critically acclaimed series, Marvel’s Daredevil.

Audio description is a narration track that describes what is happening on-screen, including physical actions, facial expressions, costumes, settings and scene changes. Customers can choose audio narration just like choosing the soundtrack in a different language.

In coming weeks, we'll add more titles, including current and previous seasons of the Golden Globe and Emmy award-winning political thriller House of Cards, Emmy award-winning comedy-drama series Orange is the New Black, as well as Tina Fey’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and the epic adventure series Marco Polo.


DisArt Festival, biggest U.S. disability arts event, opens this week

http://goo.gl/E2CVy9

DisArt Festival, a 15-day event to broaden an understanding of disability through the arts art, as well as to develop an appreciation for work by artists with disabilities, begins Friday in downtown Grand Rapids.

Art exhibitions, independent films, fashion and performance art are part of the city-wide festival continuing through April 25 with a goal of championing creativity, conquering prejudice and strengthening the wider community.

Smaller disabilities events, including "Bodies of Work" in Chicago, have been held before, but nothing quite like the inaugural DisArt Festival, said Chris Smit, director ofDisArt Festival and an associate professor of media studies at Calvin College.

"This is the largest Disability Arts Festival ever to be programmed in the United States - maybe even in the world, although there are a couple in the United Kingdom that come close," Smit said.


Folium, 3D printed book from The Art Institute of Chicago

An artistic and accessible example of the possibilities of 3D printing....
http://goo.gl/TEi2mO

Folium is released under the following Creative Commons License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Folium was produced at the Art Institute of Chicago between January and August 2014
by Tom Burtonwood as part of his Artist in Residence in the Ryan Education Center. Folium
is a 3D Printed Book of Bas Relief from the museums collection spanning over two thousand
years of human history. The title Folium is derived from the Latin for leaf and refers to
the decorative leaves that allow each page to flex.

Folium features 3D scans produced using Autodesk’s 123D Catch and Recap photogrammetry applications. These scans we edited in Netfabb Pro, cleaned up for 3D printing and combined with STL files generated in Autodesk’s Tinkercad to create the “pages.”

Each of the scans is printed with the positive and negative on the same page, allowing people to use malleable materials to create copies of all the pieces inside Folium. Simply undo the two securing bolts and slide the pages out. Detach from the flexible leaf if you choose. When finished simply reinsert and slide the bolt through and secure with the nut.

Folium is designed with braille translations of the front cover, and the list of works to aid recognition for the low sighted and visually impaired. The braille translations were produced using nischi’s openSCAD Braille Writer library (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:36921 ) and jaqtikkun’s openSCAD Braille numbers, 1-12 in Nemeth code with number sign (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:274081 )

Folium is available from Thingiverse in addition to Github. Additionally the Tinkercad models have been made available.


HOW TO PREPARE FOR AN ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY DISASTER

Worth thinking about regardless of OS...
http://goo.gl/DXGJsq

Back Up Your Devices

If you use an iPad, iPhone or Mac computer, you must be backing up at least weekly, and preferably daily. If it’s possible, make multiple backups in different places.


Keep Duplicates

For cheap devices, or those which only last a year or less, keep duplicates available as much as possible. Things that might come into this category depends on your assistive technology needs and how rough you are on your devices, but some examples would be:

  • Styluses
  • Mouth sticks and head pointers
  • Switches
  • Headphones, earbuds, or headsets
  • Trackpads and mice
  • Cables for charging iPhones and iPads


I Have Nonverbal Autism. Here’s What I Want You to Know.

http://goo.gl/jznSq9

I want people to know autism is another way of being. I am weary of stereotypes that make us out to be less human than neurotypical people. I have listened to people talk negatively about autism since I was diagnosed and, as a result, I learned to hate myself and think I was a monster for causing so much hardship. I can’t let others continue living under these common misconceptions about autism.

Let’s pretend you are like me. You can’t talk, but you have a well-functioning mind and can understand people. Imagine you answer everyone who says something to you, but only you can hear it. Others hear your voice saying things you don’t necessarily mean. They think that’s all you are capable of thinking. People see your repetitive flapping or tapping and they think it serves no purpose. They don’t understand that the minute you stop, the moment is flooded with lights that hum, loud sounds that echo, kids moving too fast for you to keep up with and people trying to engage with you. It is hard on me to put my stimming away, but I try.


Looking Differently at Disability and Decision Making

http://goo.gl/xRd167

Around the world, people with disabilities—particularly those with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities—are invisible in the eyes of the law, which often doesn’t fully recognize them as people. They are left legally disempowered—unable to open a bank account, get married, vote in elections, consent to or refuse medical treatment, and in some cases even receive items in the mail.

Whether motivated by benevolence or prejudice, the cumulative result of this disenfranchisement is the same: people with disabilities are rendered non-persons before the law, barred from making decisions about their own lives.

Open Society Fellow Michael Bach of the Institute for Research and Development on Inclusion and Society talks about how “supported decision making” can allow those of us with disabilities to contribute to and participate more fully in society.


Redefining HCBS: CMS Guidance on Non-Residential Services and Its Implications for Employment

http://goo.gl/nYorhv

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released new regulations in January 2014 governing home and community-based services (HCBS) provided through state Medicaid programs. The regulations also clarify that in order to receive Federal HCBS funding for services to individuals with disabilities, states must ensure HCBS be delivered in the most integrated setting, and “….support full access of individuals receiving (waiver services) to the greater community, including opportunities to seek employment and work in competitive integrated settings, engage in community life, control personal resources and receive services in the community to the same degree of access as individuals not receiving (waiver services).”


To assist states in complying with the requirements of the HCBS final rule as it relates to non-residential settings, CMS recently released a toolkit with a number of fact sheets and resources. This webinar archive includes presentations from CMS and national subject matter experts, who discuss the HCBS rule and its applications in supporting individuals with disabilities to seek and attain competitive integrated employment.

View the archive of this webinar on YouTube or visit the webinar archive page to download presentation materials, including a transcript of the webinar.